@Melizmatic @teknocholer @Bobo
OK, well and truly triggered!
We are talking about sharpening one of the most ancient tools for cooking here (as well as killing and stuff). Everyone needs to learn how to use one and then take care of it, unless making food for yourself or others is not an issue!
Modern knives are generically German, French and Japanese by sales data. I would look to the Asian history for utilitarian knives and how to use them. Have a big passion for Japanese myself.
The ubiquitous Chinese ‘clever’ would be the most universal for me - fine precise cutting and crunching through bones in one knife instead of several. Kinda interesting that no one is making these bespoke!
Learning to sharpen is part of using a knife and historically this is a stone in Asian culture, where as the ‘steel’ was introduced into the Western food production system as a more industrial answer to repetitive tasking.
Stone and/or steel; everything else is fluff.
